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Welcome to Tech News Today, I'm Mike Elgan - I'm Jason Howell.

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Tech News Today explores the big stories of the day in conversation with some of the world's best journalists.

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Our guest co-anchor this week is Natali Morris, a contributor to NBC and cofounder of ReadQuick, a speed reading app for iOS.

* The “oldstable” versions of Debian Squeeze and Suse Linux Enterprise Server are not vulnerable.

* allows attackers to obtain the private keys used to encrypt traffic

* attackers can only access 64K of memory during one iteration of the attack, but the attackers can “keep reconnecting or during an active TLS connection keep requesting arbitrary number of 64 kilobyte chunks of memory content until enough secrets are revealed

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Steve * grc.com * @SGgrc

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An Indian startup called Ineda Systems has developed a chip for wearable computers that can run for 30 days without recharging. The company emerged from stealth mode today. And they’ve got some big backers, including Samsung and Qualcomm.

* The Dhanush will come in four tiers, from the “Nano” to the “Advanced,” customized for simple fitness trackers up to high-end smart watches.

* Hyderabad in India; more than 180 engineers.

* chairman is Sanjay Jha, who led Motorola Mobility until its sale to Google; worked at Qualcomm

* Chips will operate up to 30 days without a charge in an always-on mode

* Ineda stresses a “hierarchical” computing architecture

Ineda’s chips = three different classes of cores. One extremely low-power block of circuitry remains on and exists mainly to talk to sensing devices, which will signal when to wake other parts of the chip up. Another core is designed to run simple apps and the third is a full-on application processor, able to run mobile-style apps, the company says.

Comcast made its case today for why regulators should let the company buy Time Warner Cable in a $45 billion transaction. Comcast’s 180-page filing to regulators today said that Time Warner Cable is not a competitor, but that Google, Apple and Facebook are.

* Broadband service is sold on a local basis, and there’s plenty of choice

* Comcast blog post: “Netflix now has over 33 million customers in the United States alone, with another 11 million international customers; Google’s video websites now attract over 157 million unique viewers each month who watch nearly 13 billion videos; Apple iTunes viewers purchase over 800,000 TV episodes and over 350,000 movies per day”

* Problem is that customers need Internet connections, and little choice there

* Review of Comcast’s deal is only beginning. Tomorrow, a Senate panel will examine the deal in some detail and provide a sense of whether lawmakers may support it or pressure FCC officials to either reject the deal or impose strict conditions on it.

* Justice Department officials looking at competitive threats

* FCC looking at whether the deal is in the “public interest”

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Peter * recode.net * @pkafka

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The FTC says a Massachusetts-based website called Jerk.com and its owner, Napster cofounder John Fanning, deceived more than 73 million users by harvesting personal information from their Facebook profiles.

* The bitrate is just 15 Mbps -- picture superior to the HD movies you can stream from Netflix, but it's inferior to less compressed approaches to 4K. * Even some Blu-ray movies will probably look better. * 4K streams from Amazon, Comcast, Fox and others this year

(OPEN LINK) - We told you April 3 about ZunZuneo, a Cuban social network created by the US government. The story was an exclusive by the Associated Press, and they characterized the program as a covert operation designed to undermine the Cuban government and harvest the personal data of Cubans. Yesterday, the agency responsible for the program, the U.S. Agency for International Development, responded to the article in a blog post, saying the AP story was riddled with inaccuracies and false conclusions.

We told you recently about Twitter’s flirtation with a redesign that would make it look more like Facebook. Well this morning, they announced it. And the examples they showed look more Facebook like even than the tests. They also announced that tweets that get more engagement will be larger. You’ll be able to pin tweets to the top of your page, filter tweets and have other custom viewing options. The new profile setup is available today to what Twitter says is a small group of users and will be rolled out to all over the next few weeks.

The Chinese government has approved Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia's mobile phone products and services business, erasing the last credible threat to the $7.2 billion deal.Nokia today repeated its prediction that the deal will close this month.

A software flaw called Heartbleed could expose your web traffic -- even if it's encrypted!

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Comcast says it's an underdog surrounded by strong competitors like Apple, Google and Facebok and should be allowed to buy Time Warner Cable.

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And the FTC says the people behind the social site Jerk.com are, well, a bunch of jerks.

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TITLE: Google to Launch Android TV

GUEST CO-ANCHOR: Natali Morris

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This is Tech News Today for Monday, April 7, 2014!

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Welcome to Tech News Today, I'm Mike Elgan - I'm Jason Howell.

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Tech News Today explores the big stories of the day in conversation with some of the world's best journalists.

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Our guest co-anchor this week is Natali Morris, a contributor to The TODAY Show, CNBC, The Queen Latifah Show and a former anchor for CNET TV. She's also the co-founder of ReadQuick, a speed reading app for iOS.

Google may soon launch a platform called Android TV. Verge writer Sean Hollister got his hands on documents and screenshots that reveal Google's plans, and he wrote an exclusive about it over the weekend.

A new Google Glass app unveiled at the NAB show lets you stream live video from Google Glass live. The app comes from Livestream, which is a popular live-streaming service that specializes in enabling live video from a variety of devices, including smartphones. The new glassware also enables the person wearing glass to get messages back from people commenting on the video. They can then respond back by talking.

Q: Is there any way to push the video to a platform other than the Livestream site?

Q: What do you suppose this will do to the battery?

Q: Will this damage Glass’s already bad reputation as an unwanted privacy intrusion?

Chris DaviesExecutive Editor, SlashGear @c_davies

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* Google’s own Hangouts app lets you live-stream to 9 people or fewer.

* Once installed, tap the side and say “Livestream.”

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Chris * slashgear.com * @c_davies

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Amazon unveiled small Wi-Fi enabled barcode scanner called the Dash. When you use it to scan the bar code of a can of soup or box of cookies, the item is placed on your Amazon Fresh shopping list. (Amazon Fresh is that company’s grocery delivery service, which is currently available only in a few cities). You can also talk into the device to place an order.

* You can sign up to receive a free one from Amazon. For now, Amazon is only giving them out on an invitation-only basis, so you may not get one, even if you sign up—at least not right away.

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* Seattle, Southern California or San Francisco

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Everybody wants to get into the TV show creation, apparently. We’ve told you about recent announcements about plans for original programming from Amazon and AOL. Over the weekend we learned that both Yahoo and Microsoft are radically expanding their plans as well. Yahoo is close to ordering four web-based TV series, according to The Wall Street Journal. Microsoft's Xbox Entertainment Studios has already committed to six TV shows with more than a dozen projects in development, according to Bloomberg.

A startup that makes an Android lockscreen app called Cover announced a few minutes ago that it has been acquired by Twitter, and Twitter has confirmed the news.The announcement was vague on future plans, but did say it that smartphones can be a lot smarter — more useful and more contextual.

We told you back in January that action-camera maker GoPro planned to offer extreme sports videos on Microsoft’s Xbox Live. Well, the GoPro channel app launches tomorrow for Xbox Live Gold subscribers worldwide. In other Xbox video news, Google announced this morning that their newly updated YouTube app for Xbox One lets you upload game play to Youtube in just two clicks.

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Facebook may be interested in offering some level of anonymity on the social network. The company has met with the people behind the anonymous social app Secret to see how they can work together, according to a report by Mike Isaac on Recode. That report was based on two sources who, naturally, wished to remain anonymous.

Nest, the company best known for its smart thermostat (and also for being acquired by Google in January), says they're going to stop selling their smoke alarm product until they fix a defect that could prevent the alarm from sounding during a fire. The company is also doing a very interesting recall -- we’ll get to that in a minute. The problem, which hasn't been reported by users, is that “unique combination of circumstances” could activate Nest Wave, which is a motion-gesture control interface for turning off the alarm sound. Critics are slamming the company for the flaw and using the Nest as the poster child for what's wrong with smart devices and the Internet of things. But Slashgear’s Chris Davies says the whole incident demonstrates the clear superiority of smart devices. He’s here to explain.

* Novauris Technologies grew out of Dragon Systems R&D U.K. Ltd., the British research subsidiary of Dragon Systems

* Founded in 2002

* The acquisition took place last year, but had not been announced

* Terms of the deal were not disclosed

* Great tidbit -- is this how they discovered? “The Novauris website doesn’t make any note of the Apple acquisition, but when we rang their U.K. offices, Novauris co-founder Hunt answered the phone, “Apple.” He confirmed that he and the team now work for Apple, and that Novauris itself is no longer an active entity.”

* Dragon Systems, a company known for products like “DragonDictate” and “Dragon NaturallySpeaking.”

* Novauris operated in embedded and server space and owned the core engine

* Apple had tried to acquire Nuance, the technology that powers Apple’s Siri

* Nuance merged with ScanSoft in 2005, a company which itself had acquired the rights to the Dragon product line

A Tech News Today fan named Adam in Oklahoma sent us an email in support of the Amazon Fire TV announcement we covered earlier this week. He writes: "It seems to me that Lab 126 really outdid themselves this time. As a casual gamer who hasn't had a console in his house for years, this hits the spot for me perfectly. I also love the fact that they have equipped this to handle audio well. Navigating this with my voice looks easy and painless. They even have PLEX!!! I expect this to sell out in no time."

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We’ve been keeping you up to date over the past couple of weeks about the Turkish government’s blocking of Twitter and YouTube. Yesterday, Twitter was unblocked due to a court order. And today, a Turkish court has ruled that a total block on all of YouTube violated human rights. However, the court allowed the government to block 15 specific videos. All this social media blocking in Turkey was designed to prevent the spread of a leaked and alleged conversation among government officials proving corruption.

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A San Diego, California, resident named Kristoffer Von Hassel was officially thanked by Microsoft for exposing a flaw in Xbox Live. The flaw enabled people to log into an account without knowing the password. He was also added to the company’s list of recognised security researchers.But here’s the thing: Kristoffer is five years old. He discovered that entering the wrong password on his dad’s Xbox Live account brought up a second password-verification screen. By simply pressing the spacebar to fill up the password field, the system would accept those spaces as the correct password. Microsoft has now fixed the flaw. Kristopher thought he’d get in trouble with dad. Instead, Microsoft gave him four free games and a one-year free subscription to Xbox Live all his own.

A social network called ZunZuneo emerged in Cuba in 2009 for users of the tightly controlled Internet in that country, then mysteriously vanished two years later. The Marxist, one-party government there, ruled by the Castro brothers for 45 years, sounded paranoid when they called it a US-controlled plot. But it turns out they were right. The whole thing was a US government scheme to undermine the Castro brothers’ grip on power.

* Called ZunZuneo, but often referred to as the "Cuban Twitter,” was created through secret shell companies and financed through foreign banks.

Hatched by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the site’s purpose was to build an audience of young Cubans, then foment dissent against the Cuban government.

* The project had tens of thousands of subscribers, and the US government gathered personal information about them through American contractors.

* It is unclear whether the scheme was legal under U.S. law

* Undermines USAID’s claims that it does not conduct covert actions

* USAID and its contractors went to extensive lengths to conceal Washington's ties to the project, according to interviews and documents obtained by the AP

* Set up front companies in Spain and the Cayman Islands to hide the money trail, and recruited CEOs without telling them they would be working on a U.S. taxpayer-funded project.

* publicly launched shortly after the 2009 arrest in Cuba of American contractor Alan Gross

* The AP obtained more than 1,000 pages of documents about the project's development

* It independently verified the project's scope and details in the documents through publicly available databases, government sources and interviews with those involved in ZunZuneo.

* hoped the network would reach critical mass so that dissidents could organize "smart mobs" that could trigger political demonstrations, or "renegotiate the balance of power between the state and society."

* "Mock ad banners will give it the appearance of a commercial enterprise

* "It was such a marvelous thing," said Ernesto Guerra, a Cuban user who never suspected his beloved network had ties to Washington.

* Executives set up a corporation in Spain and an operating company in the Cayman Islands

* Subscribers' messages were funneled through two other countries — but never through American-based computer servers.

* For more than two years, ZunZuneo grew and reached at least 40,000 subscribers

* Cuban officials tried to trace the text messages and break into the ZunZuneo system

* ZunZuneo stopped in September 2012 when a government grant ended.

* The moment when ZunZuneo disappeared, (it) was like a vacuum," said Guerra, the ZunZuneo user. "In the end, we never learned what happened. We never learned where it came from."

Google’s long-awaited stock split goes into effect today. Normally stories like this are boring. But in this case, Google is not only splitting the stock, but changing the types of stocks issued to boost the power of the company's two founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Critics call it a naked power grab. Supporters say it’s just a smart move.

Q: First of all, are you impressed with Europe’s new net neutrality law?

Maggie ReardonReporter, CNET @maggie_reardon

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* Incredible set of errors in an Associated press report on this:

AP: “European policy is now departing sharply with the route taken in the U.S., where a net neutrality law was struck down in January. Since then, Netflix has contracted with Comcast for preferential treatment of Internet traffic bearing its film streams.”

1. It wasn’t a “law” that was struck down, but the FCC’s own rules

2. It wasn’t “struck down” -

3. Netflix and Comcast agreement wasn’t a net neutrality issue

* Amendment 234 gave a strong definition for net neutrality: “Net neutrality” means the principle according to which all internet traffic is treated equally, without discrimination, restriction or interference, independently of its sender, recipient, type, content, device, service or application.

* The bill also forbids telecommunications companies from blocking or degrading Internet services such as Skype or WhatsApp to prevent them from competing with their own offerings.

* phase out roaming fees across the 28-country European Union by December 2015.

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Maggie * cnet.com * @maggie_reardon

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As expected, Microsoft unveiled Cortana yesterday. The Windows Phone virtual assistant feature, which will initially remain in beta and for the US market only, competes with Apple’s Siri and Google Now.

* Available on new phones as soon as late April or early May, Belfiore said.

* can express ‘emotions’

* Cortana will present contextual alerts like Google Now

* Will remember previous topics, so you don’t have to be specific in subsequent questions

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Yahoo announced new encryption, partly as a response to the Edward Snowden leaks. The company now encrypts traffic between its own data centers and also changed the default setting for the Yahoo homepage so it’s HTTPS unless the user takes action to turn it off.

* Yahoo web sites for Good Morning America on Yahoo, Yahoo News, Yahoo Sports and Yahoo Finance won’t feature the encryption by default because it interferes with ads

* Yahoo Messenger as the next major product to get a secure update

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We told you back in February about Google’s huge expansion of Google Fiber rollouts to up to 34 new cities. Google Fiber, of course, is Google’s fiber infrastructure that the company claims is a hundred times faster than your average broadband connection. Well, an exclusive by Amir Efrati on The Information this morning says Google is working on adding mobile wireless service to markets where Google Fiber exists. If Google goes forward with this idea, it’s possible that a single monthly payment to Google would get you fast home Internet connectivity and also mobile phone data and voice service. The company wouldn’t build its own cell towers, but would instead act as a mobile virtual network operator using the services of an existing network.

A web site promoting a new version of Windows for the Internet of Things appeared a couple days ago. At the time, Microsoft hadn't announced what the site was promoting, and the site was quickly taken down. Well, yesterday Microsoft announced it at its BUILD developers conference and brought the site back up. Awkwardly named Windows on the Internet of Things, the new version runs on the Rasberry Pi like Galileo platform from Intel. Microsoft said the new version of Windows will be free. The site is Windows on Devices dot com.

FOLLOW-UP 2 - We’ve been keeping you up to date with the Turkish government’s block of Twitter within that country. One of several dramas unfolding there is that Turkey’s constitutional court ruled the ban illegal -- but the government kept the block in place anyway. Reuters reported and Twitter has confirmed this morning that the block has finally been lifted.

* VP of Kindle Peter Larsen said Amazon has identified the three problems customers found with other video streaming devices. This includes difficult search capabilities, performance issues and closed ecosystems. He said the Fire TV addresses these issues.

* The thin rectangular box runs a quad-core processor, like that found in high-end smartphones. It has dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi, 2 GB of storage, and full 1080p support. The sleek accompanying remote is Bluetooth. It’s shipping today.

* Fire Game Controller, which will cost an additional $39.99

Jillian D'OnfroTech writer, Business Insider @jillianiles

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* Vice President of Amazon Games Michael Frazzini says thousands of games will be available on Fire TV next month

* Amazon is partnering with Sega, Disney, EA and more. Yep, it’s got Minecraft (unlike Oculus ever will). Amazon will also be developing its own games, both for Fire TV and the Kindle Fire HDX.

* These games will be available as in-app purchases, in keeping with Amazon’s business model of using hardware to push you to spend money in its marketplace

* voice search, which Vice President of Kindle Peter Larsen insists “actually works.” As they say on Twitter, “wow, if true.” In the demo, IMDB ratings popped up when searching for specific movies.

* The Fire TV box plays music and displays lyrics to whatever you’re listening to on TV. So, if you buy this you’ll have no excuse for singing “wrapped up like a douche” every again.

* High-performance

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Jillian * businessinsideer.com * jillianiles

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Yesterday was the first day of a shiny, new Apple-Samsung lawsuit where the two most profitable handset makers haggle over patents. Apple and Samsung went straight for the legal jugular in their opening arguments yesterday, with Apple saying that Samsung quote: “Crossed to the dark side” and blatantly copied the iPhone and Samsung countering by saying that Apple is trying to limit consumer choice.

Is Bitcoin money? It’s an important question. For example, the IRS says it’s property, not currency. And of course they would say that. If it's property, they can tax it. And it turns out that Ross Ulbricht, the alleged creator of the Silk Road online black market agrees with the IRS, according to a new article on Forbes.com by Andrew Greenberg. You see, Silk Road used Bitcoin as the method of payment. And Ulbricht is charged with, among other things, money laundering. He says that if Bitcoin isn’t money, then how could there be money laundering?

Q: First, can you tell us what Silk Road is exactly, and what this case is about?

Q: Is the claim that Bitcoin isn’t currency a sound legal strategy?

Q: Is this case the right venue to legally determine whether Bitcoin is currency?

Q: The bitcoin question isn’t the main point in the case. Isn’t he arguing also the same point that Kim Dotcom claims in the MegaUpload case -- that he merely provided a trade platform that any drug trafficking, computer fraud or money laundering was done by users?

Andrew GreenbergTech Reporter, Forbes @a_greenberg

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* Ulbricht’s lawyer Joshua Dratel

* They say all charges should be dropped, including accusations of conspiracy to traffic in narcotics, launder money, hack computers, and run a “continuing criminal enterprise”

* Is the IRS’s opinion about Bitcoin relevant in this case?

* Should be covered by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects site owners and Internet Service Providers from liability against what users do or say on the sites and services they provide

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forbes.com @a_greenberg

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Microsoft's Build developer conference starts today in San Francisco. And it looks like the company gave us an accidental hint of what they’ll be announcing. A web site was spotted yesterday called Windows on Devices dot com. It was quickly taken down. But not before a few bloggers got to rifle through its contents. They found a promotional site talking about Microsoft quote "bringing Windows to a whole new class of small devices -- talking bears, robots, a smart coffee mug and the Internet of Things running Windows and powered by Intel's Galileo platform. The site also talked about a forthcoming SDK, and bragged about a life-sized piano, which may debut at the Build conference today.

* When the sniffing eventually surfaced, Google apologized, stopped doing it and offered to destroy the data, which it had never used

* But the company has vigorously defended the legality of the sniffing, arguing that capturing unencrypted Wi-Fi is not wiretapping.

* The Justice Department and the FCC have cleared Google of direct wrongdoing, but the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last September ruled against the company in a dozen merged class action lawsuits stemming from the scandal. The company today asked the Supreme Court to overrule that decision and end the lawsuits

* “IT professionals routinely use the same kind of technology as Google’s Street View cars did to collect packet data in order to secure company networks,” the company writes. “And unlike Google, which never used the payload data it collected, security professionals also parse and analyze the data collected from wired and wireless networks, including networks operated by other persons or entities, to identify vulnerabilities in and potential attacks on the networks they protect.”

* A reply brief by the plaintiffs in the case is due by April 30.

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A web site called RamshackleGlam.com was stolen from its rightful owner Saturday. The thief immediately attempted to sell it on an auction web site. The “buy it now” price was set at $30,000. The site’s owner is Jordan Reid, and through a lot of resourcefulness and tenacity, she managed to get her site back. She not only lived to tell her story on Mashable, but she’s here to tell us all the gory details. Welcome, Jordan!

Q: The system is clearly broken. How could it be fixed so that other’s aren’t victimized in the same way?

Q: What advice do you have for other web site owners?

Jordan ReidFounder, Ramshackle Glam @ramshackleglam

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We told you on March 5 about a promotion run by T-Mobile that offered $200 to customers to trade in their BlackBerrys for a new phone -- any phone -- it didn’t have to be a new BlackBerry. Some 94% of the BlackBerry users who took advantage of the offer moved to a different brand, mostly iPhones, according to a leaked memo. Today we’ve learned that BlackBerry has sent a “Dear John” letter to T-Mobile telling them that BlackBerrys will no longer be available to T-Mobile customers after April 25.As Ars Technica pointed out this morning, the change will hardly matter. Both BlackBerry and T-Mobile are in fourth place in their respective markets.

Yahoo may be in talks to buy a video syndication and advertising company called News Distribution Network, according to an exclusive in The Wall Street Journal by Doug MacMillan. The sale price could be about $300 million, according to the report.

Q: Dean, what do you suppose is driving this trend away from the mobile web and toward apps?

Q: What are the apps people are using more?

Q: So about a third of usage is gaming on both platforms. Runners up including social networking and watching videos. Looks like people use their phones mainly as distractions. Where do productivity, fitness and, say, reading news, magazines and books fit into all this?

Q: What does this mean for the appeal of HTML5 development, vs app development.

Q: Are there any significant differences between usage on iOS and Android?

Dean TakahashiLead writer for GamesBeat, VentureBeat @deantak

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* 2 hours and 42 minutes per day on mobile devices up from 2 hours, 38 minutes a year ago

* Just 22 minutes a day are spent using a mobile browser

* Mobile app usage accounts for 2 hours and 19 minutes of that time spent

* mobile web usage dropped from 20% of the U.S. consumer’s time in 2013 to just 14%

* gaming still dominates mobile usage with 32% of time spent on iOS and Android devices

* Facebook remained a strong second with 17% of time spent on mobile, down from 18%

* Facebook, combined with Twitter (1.5%) and Social Messaging apps (9.5%) grew to 28% of time spent on mobile, up from 24% last year

* Broader shift from socializing on Facebook to sharing within smaller, more private messaging applications

* YouTube accounted for 4% of time spent

* Utility apps saw their shares remain the same at 8% each, year-over-year, while productivity apps doubled their share from 2% to 4%.

* This means that web technologies like HTML5, the lingua franca for the web, aren’t keeping up with the native app’s performance on mobile devices.

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Dean * venturebeat.com * @deantak

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Twitter made major moves this week to boost its connection to the world of television. The company acquired two TV-related companies in Europe, including France’s Mesagraph and the UK’s SecondSync. Twitter also announced that it’s increasing its partnership with Kantar Media, a marketing research firm.

Q: Twitter is a pretty global company, but less than one third of its revenue comes from outside the US. Why is that?

Tom Cheredar Staff Writer, VentureBeat @TChed

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* Twitter bought Bluefin Labs in February 2013; company measures Who is watching TV while checking out Twitter

* Advertisers want to double down on TV ads and Twitter ads

* New acquisitions help Twitter Twitter do Bluefin stuff but in Europe

* Twitter also needs to shake down foreigners for more $$. Twitter earned just 27% of its revenue for the three months through December 31 from overseas although 78% of its 241 million monthly active users reside outside of the U.S.

* Kantar works like Nielsen to measure TV viewing. Old deal was for UK and Spain. New deal expands to the Nordics, Russia, parts of Africa and Southeast Asia

* Twitter has taken the Nielsen Twitter TV rating to Italy and, more recently, to Australia. Elsewhere, it has partnered with Video Research in Japan and GFK in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.

* Twitter also launched a TV network-focused ad/promotion platform Amplify last year, as well as forged partnerships with media companies like Comcast.

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Tom * venturebeat.com * @TChed

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A mandatory kill switch could save consumers $2.6 billion each year, according to research out of Creighton (CRAY-ton) University. A kill switch is the ability to remotely erase smartphones when they're lost or stolen.

Q: The service seems to collect information. Do we know what they do with it?

Q: Which browsers are supported?

alyssa bereznakTechnology Columnist for Yahoo @alyssabereznak

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* the extension is able to watch your activity on the site and collect the information of any direct connection whose page you’ve decided to visit. What it’s using this information for is unclear.

* Chrome, Firefox, and Safari

* SellHack.com

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Everyone, it seems, is doing original TV-like programming these days, from Netflix to Amazon. Now even AOL is getting into the act. And, no, this isn’t an April Fool’s joke. AOL has commissioned a reality show called “Connected,” which is a copy -- I mean an adaptation of an Israeli series. Set in New York City, the US “Connected” will enable viewers to watch five cast members as they record their lives with handheld video cameras. The half-hour show premiers in January 2015 on the AOL On Network.

And an unauthorized browser extension reveals hidden email addresses on Linkedin. Or does it?

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TITLE: Apple and Samsung Suing Each Other. Again! 975

GUEST CO-ANCHOR: Jason Hiner

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This is Tech News Today for Monday, March 31, 2014!

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This episode of Tech News Today is brought to you by ShareFile! Enhance your workflow - send files of almost any size easily and securely with ShareFile, by Citrix. Try ShareFile today! For a 30 Day Free Trial, go to ShareFile.com, click the microphone and enter TNT!

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And by... Gazelle, the fast and simple way to sell your used gadgets! Find out what your used Apple and Android devices are worth at gazelle.com.

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Welcome to Tech News Today, I'm Mike Elgan - I'm Jason Howell.

6

Tech News Today explores the big stories of the day in conversation with some of the world's best journalists.

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Our guest co-anchor today is Jason Hiner, Global Editor in Chief of TechRepublic and Global Long Form Editor of ZDNet for CBS Interactive.

Apple and Samsung are back in court today. Apple is accusing Samsung of violating five patents. Samsung is accusing Apple of violating 2 patents. What’s different this time is that four of the Apple patents are part of Google’s Android. So if Apple wins the case, it would force Google to change Android for all handset makers, not just Samsung. Apple is seeking about $2 billion in damages.

Q: Didn’t Apple and Samsung already settle all this in the 2012 trial?

Q: Some of Apple’s patents in the case sound like pretty basic stuff, such as tapping on a link to go to another app and slide-to-unlock.

Q: Apple already won a victory in the case, sort of. Samsung attorneys wanted a video about innovation, which refers to the iPhone and iPad, blocked from being used in court, but that was overruled. Will that matter much in the case?

Q: Brian, who are some of the high-level witnesses expected from Apple, Samsung and Google?

Q: It seems likely that Google engineers will take the stand, including possibly Andy Rubin. Why doesn’t Apple just sue Google directly over the four Android-related patents?

Q: This isn’t about the money for Apple, is it?

Brian X. ChenTech reporter, The New York Times @bxchen

Dan_RowinskiMobile Editor, ReadWrite @Dan_Rowinski

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* Google engineers are expected to take the stand, possibly Andy Rubin

The Supreme Court today will consider whether software is eligible for patent protection. But software that’s part of a user interface, like the patents in question today coincidentally in the Apple-Samsung case, would not be invalidated no matter what.

* challenged by CLS Bank International, which says they are not patent eligible

* Google, Dell, Verizon, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and engine manufacturer Cummins are among the companies that have filed legal papers weighing in on the issue.

* The legal question boils down to how innovative an invention should be to receive legal protection

* supreme court ruled in the 1970s that an algorithm – a set of simple instructions on how to carry out a task – is not itself patentable

* "patent trolls", also known as "non-practising entities"

* Between 2007 and 2011, NPEs accounted for an estimated 19% of all patent infringement lawsuits

* patents involve human interaction with the computer (in the form of the phone), and so would still exist if the supreme court were to strike out pure software patents.

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We’ve been reporting on Turkey’s creeping crackdown on access to Twitter and YouTube. When Twitter was first blocked by the government there, a viral campaign of graffiti spread through the country with Google Public DNS information to get around the Twitter block. Then the government blocked Google Public DNS as well. Now, Google claims that Turkey’s government is redirecting Turkish traffic to fake Google Public DNS sites, presumably to log the IP addresses of anyone attempting to use them. Other DNS server traffic is being re-routed as well.

Jeff Hawkins is one of Silicon Valley’s most brilliant inventors and entrepreneurs. He’s best known for inventing the Palm Pilot, which mainstreamed the connected PDA concept, which lead to the smartphone revolution. Although his company, Palm Computing, was ultimately mis-managed to death, everyone expected Hawkins himself to go on to keep inventing in the smartphone space. But then, about nine years ago, he made a radical change in his career and devoted his life to re-inventing computing itself.

A Malaysian smartphone blog called soya cincau discovered that the Samsung Galaxy S5 has a hidden 'Baby Crying Detector' feature. It only works when the phone is paired with Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smartwatch. When you leave your Galaxy S5 in the baby’s room, the watch will vibrate when the phone detects crying.

This episode is brought to you by:Squarespace, the all-in-one platform that makes it fast and easy to create your own professional website or online portfolio. For a free 2 week trial and 10% off, go to squarespace.com, and use offer code TNT.

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And by... NatureBox where you can order great-tasting, healthy snacks delivered right to your door. Forget the vending machine, and get in shape with healthy, delicious treats like Citrus Chipotle Chickpeas! To get 50% off your first box go to naturebox.com/twit. That’s naturebox.com/twit.

5

Welcome to Tech News Today, I'm Mike Elgan - I'm Jason Howell.

6

Tech News Today explores the big stories of the day in conversation with some of the world's best journalists.

Amazon is expected to announce a new streaming TV service on Wednesday. The company sent invitations out yesterday. Reports based on leaks, unnamed sources and those annoying “people familiar with the matter” have suggested a set-top box that streams TV shows, movies and music videos and possibly that plays games as well.

Microsoft announced Office for iPad yesterday. The suite includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint, but not Outlook, which is sold separately. Four years in the making, Office for iPad is getting generally positive reviews. And it’s free to download, but the free version allows only the ability to read, but not create or edit, Word documents. You can edit Excel spreadsheets and present with PowerPoint documents with the free version. Unlocking full functionality requires an Office 365 subscription, which starts at about a hundred bucks a year for the Home Premium edition.

* Compatible only with Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud service (previously known as SkyDrive) and OneDrive for Business and SharePoint

* Reviewers (and Microsoft) say it’s ground-up iPad

* Mark up slides using a pen tool, or you can hold your finger on the screen to bring up a laser pointer.

* Only for iPads running iOS 7 or later

* Custom keyboard for Excel

* Ed Bott: “Formulas ribbon includes an extensive selection of functions, arranged by category just as in the desktop app. Even obscure statistical and financial functions are available.”

* Ed Bott: Office for the iPad is how it “leapfrogs Microsoft’s Windows tablets. On Windows 8 and Windows RT devices, Office is still a desktop app with some grudging interface tweaks designed to ease the pain of using an app without a mouse. Anyone who owns a Surface RT is likely to look enviously at these iPad apps, which for now are the gold standard for Office on a modern tablet."

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pcworld.com @markhachman

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BlackBerry released its fourth quarter earnings today, and as you might expect, things look pretty grim. Revenues are down 64 percent, dropping below $1 billion for the first time since 2007. The company lost $42 million for the quarter. But CEO John Chen is optimistic.

Here to try to explain this optimism, and BlackBerry’s prospects for survival in an iOS and Android world, is Verge editor Dan Seifert.

Q: Is John Chen nuts, or does he have reason for optimism?

Q: BlackBerry plans to differentiate with physical keyboards. Is that a winning strategy?

Q: How can BlackBerry gain new users, rather than simply thrilling old ones with keyboards?

Q: Bringing back the BlackBerry Bold?

Q: BlackBerry Messenger is now available on iOS and Android, and soon Windows Phone and on the Nokia X. Is this a significant business for BlackBerry?

Dan SeifertEditor, The Verge @dcseifert

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* reduced operating expenses, down 51 percent

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg yesterday provided some surprising facts about the company’s previously announced Connectivity Lab. The group will use drones, satellites and lasers to bring Internet access to remote places as part of Zuck’s Internet.org project.

We told you yesterday about how Twitter is becoming more like Facebook, and we even talked about the possibility that Twitter might add something similar to Google+’s interactive posts, which enable downloads directly. Now we’ve learned that Twitter is planning to release a mobile ad product targeted at app makers. The format is called the "app-install ad," and it’s designed to encourage users to download the advertised app straight from the ad, according to a report on Bloomberg. Twitter's been testing app-install ads for at least several weeks. One mobile-app maker contacted by Bloomberg said cost of acquiring each new user dropped by four-fifths using the new format.

In explaining why Facebook spent $2 billion on the company that makes the Oculus Rift virtual reality goggles, Mark Zuckerberg said Oculus has the potential to be the most social platform ever. So a Montreal-based collective called KO-OP Mode tested -- OK, mocked -- the idea by creating an app for browsing Facebook using Oculus Rift. The app lets you wander around in a 3D environment where the walls show the live Facebook profiles of your friends. The app is called Face rift.

Microsoft announces Office for iPad -- better late than never, I guess.

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BlackBerry remains optimistic despite a grim earnings report.

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And somebody created an Oculus Rift interface for... you guessed it! Facebook!

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Coming up this week! Everything happens on Wednesday, April 2!

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Microsoft’s annual Build Developer Conference kicks off in San Francisco that day.

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Amazon is expected to unveil a new streaming video product at a special event Wednesday at 8am Pacific -- we’ll cover it live here on the TWiT network.

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And some guy named Leo Laporte will host a Google Hangout with Internet legend Vint Cerf Wednesday at 11am Pacific.

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That’s what’s coming up on the Wednesday ahead! Back to you, Leo!

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TITLE: Twitter Gets Less Twitter-Like, 973

GUEST CO-ANCHOR: Darrell Etherington

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This is Tech News Today for Thursday, March 27, 2014!

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This episode of Tech News Today is brought to you by NatureBox where you can order great-tasting, healthy snacks delivered right to your door. Forget the vending machine, and get in shape with healthy, delicious treats like Citrus Chipotle Chickpeas! To get 50% off your first box go to naturebox.com/twit. That’s naturebox.com/twit.

4

And by... Squarespace, the all-in-one platform that makes it fast and easy to create your own professional website or online portfolio. For a free 2 week trial and 10% off, go to squarespace.com, and use offer code TNT.

5

Welcome to Tech News Today, I'm Mike Elgan - I'm Jason Howell.

6

Tech News Today explores the big stories of the day in conversation with some of the world's best journalists.

President Barack Obama announced this morning his highly anticipated plan to deal with the mass collection of phone metadata by the NSA. His plan is to make the telecom companies do it. The NSA could then access the data with court permission.

* new plan would not be in place by a March 28 expiration, he will seek a 90-day reauthorization of the existing program

* There are alternative plans floating around in Congress

* The proposal would not affect other forms of bulk collection under the same provision.

* Edward Snowden

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Twitter announced changes that make it more like Facebook or Google+. You can now tag up to 10 people in a picture without adding to the 140-character count, and also attach up to four pictures per tweet. The changes will show up in the iOS and Android apps, and possibly the web site in the future.

Ashley Feinberg is a writer for Gizmodo and wrote an opinion piece on the changes.

Q: Twitter’s hyper minimalism seems to me like its secret sauce. Why would they dilute the sauce with more Facebook-like features?

Q: Twitter is testing all kinds of changes that would make Twitter unrecognizable. For example, changing the “Tweet” button to “Share,” and even killing off hashtags and @ replies. It’s almost like they don’t like Twitter.

Q: You implied in your post that Twitter may be doing all this because of slow user growth. Isn’t the best thing about Twitter’s audience its influence, not its size?

Q: Multiple pictures and photo tagging are coming to apps first. Is there any evidence that it will come to the twitter.com site?

Q: Is this move mostly about data collection -- so Twitter can harvest more data on users?

Ashley FeinbergWriter, Gizmodo @ashfein

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* Twitter will automatically craft a collage for you.

* Linking people to photos enables Twitter to understand social connections

* Tagging data will be carried in the invisible metadata that travels with each tweet

* Tagged users will be notified, unless they opt out of notification

* Notably, face tagging — or people tagging — is one of the core features of Instagram

* Twitter is testing changing its “retweet” button to “share”

* Twitter also testing profile design changes and a tile-like format for tweets

Twitter will soon unveil a new music strategy, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. The company pulled its one-year-old music app from the Apple iTunes app store less than a week ago. The new strategy won’t involve a dedicated app, but will focus on music-centered conversations on Twitter itself, and in the regular Twitter apps.

* Twitter met w/ Beats Music about promoting subscriptions to the music-streaming service

* Twitter is also looking to partner with music-sharing site SoundCloud

* Vevo is working with Twitter to offer bite-sized music videos

* Might let celebrities better promote their music

* Twitter launched a music app April 2013; nobody cared

* App Annie's data show it was ranked 255th in the music category last Friday

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theverge.com @hamburger

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Microsoft is interested in Google-glass like smart glasses technology. At least, they were interested enough to spend a possible $150 million to buy smartglass-related intellectual property from the Osterhout Design Group, according to an exclusive in TechCrunch by Ingrid Lunden.

* Deal closed last November, with the patents quietly transferring in January 2014

* headset up with a separate device that looks like a wristwatch.

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techcrunch.com @ingridlunden

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One effect of the Internet of Things and the home automation revolution is that ordinary household items will become consumer electronics gadgets that are sold by consumer electronics companies. The most recent example is Samsung, which announced today a new line of smart lightbulbs. Samsung’s new Smart Bulb product supports Bluetooth, and can be controlled with a mobile app. The company also announced an L-tube series that replaces dumb fluorescent tube lights with smart ones. Samsung’s announcement comes just a few days after LG rolled out a similar line of smart bulbs. While Samsung’s prices haven’t been announced, the standard LG Smart Bulb costs about $32.

We've been reporting on the blocking of Twitter in Turkey. And we told you yesterday that a court ruled the block illegal and ordered that Twitter be un-blocked, which hasn't happened yet. This morning we've learned that the government is now blocking YouTube as well.

Walking while texting can be hazardous. But help is on the way from Apple. The company has patented what they call “transparent texting.” The idea is to show the live view through the camera as the background for your iMessage window. That way, you can see the open manhole, telephone pole or fountain in the background of your conversation as you’re text-walking down the street. Of course, apps that do this have existed for years in the App Store.

This episode of Tech News Today is brought to you by Squarespace, the all-in-one platform that makes it fast and easy to create your own professional website or online portfolio. For a free 2 week trial and 10% off, go to squarespace.com, and use offer code TNT.

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5

Welcome to Tech News Today, I'm Mike Elgan - I'm Jason Howell.

6

Tech News Today explores the big stories of the day in conversation with some of the world's best journalists.

Facebook announced yesterday that it has agreed to buy Oculus VR. The cash-and-stock deal totals about $2 billion. Oculus VR, a company that makes the Oculus Rift virtual reality goggles, began less than two years ago as a Kickstarter project.

Q: Zuckerberg said Oculus could be monetized with communications services, commerce and “maybe advertising” and that Facebook wouldn’t try to make money selling hardware. It seems to me this is all about platform? Could this be part of a play for the living room, with announcements coming in the future about Facebook TV?

Q: Oculus fan critics say Facebook just wants to harvest their data? Is that part of the plan?

Q: Reading how this deal came about, it sounds to me like Zuck tried it, got really excited and just wanted to buy it. How much of this is calculation, and how much just Zuckerberg's intuition about wanting to control the next hot thing?

Q: Zuckerberg said buying Oculus VR is “a long-term bet on the future of computing” -- PCs, Mobile, VR. First of all, is he right? And, second, Facebook, what, sees itself as the next Microsoft?

Q: Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe is on record as saying that the reason for the deal is Facebook’s deep pockets and also that Facebook agrees with their vision. In other words, Oculus believes Facebook will invest a ton of money and also leave them alone. How likely is that in the long term? Won’t Facebook want to control it at some point?

Q: This isn’t as big a deal as it sounds, is it? I mean, Facebook is spending only $400 million in cash. It’s really not that big a risk, is it?

Q: This is Kickstarter’s first two-billion dollar exit. Oculus VR raised a lot of money from a lot of Kickstarter backs in part based on assurances that Oculus would remain independent. Is this deal bad for Kickstarter? Will it sour people on funding projects?

Reed AlbergottiReporter, The Wall Street Journal @ReedAlbergotti

Ian Sherr Reporter, The Wall Street Journal @iansherr

Parmy OlsonWriter, Forbes @parmy

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* $2 billion for the startup, forking over $400 million in cash, 23.1 million shares of Facebook common stock and a $300 million earn-out in cash and stock based on future performance.

The New York Times is an ancient newspaper, and advertiser-supported since it launched in 1851. But now they’re exploring new ways to monetize without ads -- or, at least, without regular display advertising. The company today unveiled NYT Now, a mobile iOS app that costs $8 per month. It launches April 2. The app will show “native advertising” which is essentially stories written and edited not by Times Staff but by advertisers. These’ll be labeled as “Paid Posts.” The Times also announced today a new Times Premier subscription that costs $45 per month, which gives access to all Times content, and also extra “behind-the-scenes” information.

* As of December 2013, had 760,000 paid subscribers to its various digital subscription packages, e-readers and replica editions of The New York Times and the International New York Times.

* Paid Posts will soon also appear in the NYT’s main app in the coming months

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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella plans to announce tomorrow something called the Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite, according to an exclusive on ZDnet by Mary Jo Foley. The bundle is aimed at enterprises and it enables the central management of smartphones and tablets, including iOS, Android and Windows Phone devices. The report is based on information from anonymous sources. Microsoft is also expected to unveil a version of Office for the iPad.

* Included in the suite are Windows Intune, a new Microsoft Azure Active Directory 'Premium' offering and Azure Rights Management Services

* The announcement is scheduled to take place during a webcast tomorrow morning at 10am Pacific, which we’ll be covering live here on the TWiT network.

* To hear far more detail about this story from Mary Jo, tune in to Windows Weekly today at 11 here on TWiT.

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FU1: We told you Friday that the Turkish government blocked Twitter in that country, and this week that they blocked Google Public DNS, which people were using to get around the Twitter block. But yesterday, a court ruled the block illegal and issued a stay of execution. The ban is expected to be lifted shortly.

FU2: We told you yesterday that HTC would offer a plain-vanilla Play Edition of its new HTC One M8. That information was based on files uploaded to the Play Store, but not announced by HTC. But now, Google is already taking orders for the phone. The price is $699 unlocked and it ships in a few weeks.

Microsoft is finally launching its long-threatened anti-trolling reputation system for the Xbox One. When players get a lot of complaints by other players, they’ll start getting reputation warnings. If they keep failing to play nice, their reputation will officially drop on the system from the default “Good” reputation to “Needs Work” and then ultimately end up in the “Avoid me” purgatory. The penalty for this status is "reduced matchmaking pairings” and other barriers to fast and easy game play.

This episode of Tech News Today is brought to you by…Gazelle, the fast and simple way to sell your used gadgets! Find out what your used Apple and Android devices are worth at gazelle.com.

4

And by... Squarespace, the all-in-one platform that makes it fast and easy to create your own professional website or online portfolio. For a free 2 week trial and 10% off, go to squarespace.com, and use offer code TNT.

5

Welcome to Tech News Today, I'm Mike Elgan - I'm Jason Howell.

6

Tech News Today explores the big stories of the day in conversation with some of the world's best journalists.

7

Our guest co-anchor today is Jessica Lessin, the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Information

HTC launched its HTC One M8 phone this morning. Like the original, the new HTC One has an aluminum body with front-facing speakers. The five-inch screen is slightly bigger than the original, and the corners of the phone are rounder. It also has two cameras on the back. In other words, all the rumors about it were true. In other HTC news this morning, the company announced that its Blinkfeed home-screen interface would become available to non-HTC Android phones on the Google Play store.

Joining us to tell us about the course is the man who’s teaching it, Assistant Professor of Professional Practice at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, Robert Hernandez.

Q: So tell us what’s involved in your Google Glass for journalism course. What will you be teaching?

Q: The class is also about the consumption of journalism, isn’t it? Glass is an extremely constrained interface. You can’t really watch long videos or read stories. What are the possibilities here?

Q: On your blog you call yourself a “hackademic” who believes journalists should learn to code -- will students be creating Glassware apps in your course?

Q: How will you teach the class to students who aren’t part of the Google Glass explorer program?

Q: What about other wearable platforms, such as smartwatches?

Robert HernandezAssistant Professor, USC @webjournalist

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The world’s biggest eyewear company is partnering with Google to make Google Glass headsets. You may not have heard of the Luxottica Group, but you’ve probably heard about the companies they own, including Ray-Ban, Oakley, LensCrafters and Sunglass Hut. They also license luxury brands to make sunglasses for Giorgio Armani and Prada.

The Internet Archive is planning to digitize 40,000 VHS tapes, encode them and put them on the site, according to a story posted on Fast Company and written by SARAH KESSLER. But here’s the thing: All the tapes were recorded by a single woman. Her name is Marion Stokes, and she obsessively recorded TV shows for decades. Digitizing the collection will cost an estimated $500,000.

And RayBan May Soon Sell Google Glasses -- Get Ready for the SunGlassHoles!

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TITLE: NSA Caught Hacking Huawei, 970

GUEST CO-ANCHOR: Donna Tam

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This is Tech News Today for Monday, March 24, 2014!

3

This episode is brought to you by:Squarespace, the all-in-one platform that makes it fast and easy to create your own professional website or online portfolio. For a free 2 week trial and 10% off, go to squarespace.com, and use offer code TNT.

The US government has long accused the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei of selling equipment compromised by code that enabled spying and hacking. A new report in the German magazine Der Spiegel says that it’s true. But it’s not the Chinese government doing the spying and hacking -- it’s the NSA.

Q: Can you tell us more about the NSA hacking of Huawei? Why did they target the company and how did they do it?

Q: It appears that the initial idea was to hack Huawei to find out if Chinese government and army hackers were using the company’s equipment as secret spy tools. But then the agency appears to have realized that they themselves could do that. Is that right?

Q: Did the NSA appear to have found evidence that Huawei was being used by the Chinese government for spying

Q: You reported that the NSA was able to access the secret source code of individual Huwaei products. Is there any indication that the NSA was involved in industrial espionage

Q: You mentioned involvement of the White House and the FBI. Is this unusual?

Q: The piece posted over the weekend was a “preview” to a longer story to be posted in the magazine. Can you give us some highlights of what will appear in the longer story?

Q: Your report suggested hacks against other companies besides Huawei. Any major companies?

Q: Isn’t this the good kind of spying -- the reason for NSA’s existence?

Holger Stark Senior correspondent, Der Spiegel @holger_stark

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* Started out trying to figure out whether Huawei was involved with PLA, but once inside decided to take opportunities to piggyback on Huawei’s business to spy broadly

* The N.S.A., for example, is tracking more than 20 Chinese hacking groups — more than half of them Chinese Army and Navy units — as they break into the networks of the United States government, companies including Google

* Comcast wants to retain significant control over the relationship with customers and the data

* Apple would have to get significant TV programming rights from media companies

* People familiar with the matter said that while Apple would like a separate "flow" for its video traffic, it isn't asking for its traffic to be prioritized over other Internet-based services.

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variety.com @awallenstein

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Microsoft’s $7.2 billion deal to acquire Nokia’s phone business has been delayed. The acquisition was expected to be done by the end of this month, but now it probably won’t happen until the end of April. The holdup is Asian regulatory approval, according to Nokia.

Cisco plans to spend a billion dollars on new data centers over the next two years to compete with Amazon in the cloud services market. Called Cisco Cloud Services, the new offering is very different from Cisco’s previous business of selling networking equipment.

We told you Friday that after Turkey’s government blocked Twitter in that country, a viral campaign of graffiti spread the word about Google’s Public DNS service, which helped users get around the block. Over the weekend, the Turkish government blocked that, too. Twitter users are still able to get around the block by using other DNS servers, or by using a VPN or the Tor network.

This episode of Tech News Today is brought to you by…Gazelle, the fast and simple way to sell your used gadgets! Find out what your used Apple and Android devices are worth at gazelle.com.

4

And by... Squarespace, the all-in-one platform that makes it fast and easy to create your own professional website or online portfolio. For a free 2 week trial and 10% off, go to squarespace.com, and use offer code TNT.

5

Welcome to Tech News Today, I'm Mike Elgan - I'm Jason Howell.

6

Tech News Today explores the big stories of the day in conversation with some of the world's best journalists.

7

Our guest co-anchor today is Andy Ihnatko, a technology columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and MacWorld, as well as a tech author, blogger, podcaster, squirrel photographer and best of all, a host of TWiT's own MacBreak Weekly!

The Turkish government blocked Twitter yesterday after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan threatened to “wipe out” the microblogging service, as well as other social media. He’s trying to contain a corruption scandal a few days before an election there.

After admitting to snooping on a blogger’s email, Microsoft announced today a change in its privacy policy. The company had taken advantage of its ownership and control of Hotmail to read a blogger's email messages to find out who leaked Microsoft secrets to said blogger. Allegedly. The incident raises the question of just how common it is for cloud companies to violate the privacy of customers in pursuit of their own internal objectives.

* FBI claims in the complaint that the blogger posted screenshots of the unreleased software and attempted to sell Windows Server activation keys on eBay.

* Microsoft's Trustworthy Computer Investigations (TWCI) team investigated the Hotmail account in an attempt to identify the blogger and his source

* they discovered e-mails from Kibkalo

* inconsistent with Microsoft's "Scroogled" campaign

* Microsoft issues statement that it will change policies

* They still reserve the right to snoop on employee’s email

* The company did not apologise

* The initial search occurred in September 2012

* The company’s user agreement reserves the right to carry out such searches, even after the changes Frank announced

* All of the big web companies have detailed privacy policies, but they generally give themselves broad rights to access customer email if they’re protecting their own rights, says Nicole Ozer, technology and civil liberties policy director at the ACLU.

* None of the companies WIRED contacted — Microsoft, Google, and Facebook — could tell us how often user accounts were searched by internal teams or what processes they have to ensure that these search capabilities are not abused

* Microsoft is also planning to publish a bi-annual transparency report

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A new piece at Slate.com by investigative journalist Allan Holmes says that “the future of wireless communication may be decided by lobbyists, think tanks, and academics who are paid for their opinions.

Q: Don’t the vested interests here -- the mobile carriers and others -- really know how best to serve their customers? Why shouldn’t they influence policy?

Q: You wrote that companies give cash to think tanks, associations, and universities, and employing public relations firms. Is this money counted when totals for lobbying are published?

Allan HolmesWriter, analyst, Center for Public Integrity @ATHolmes

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* Verizon, T-Mobile, Mobile Future (funded by AT&T and Verizon)

* Lobbies: want wireless companies to bid without restrictions on as many frequencies as they want.

* “The four biggest carriers together spent $37.3 million in 2013

* trying to influence lawmakers and the FCC

* policy issues ranging from taxes to cybersecurity as well as spectrum (auction is more than a year away.”

* Thurber said. “Lobbying isn’t just what the federal registered lobbyists do. It’s an orchestration of a variety of techniques and influence.”

* From the story: “The 600 megahertz band is the kind of airwaves that wireless companies want and need. It travels farther than frequencies above 1,000 megahertz, can penetrate buildings, navigate hilly terrain, and more easily go through vegetation, all of which makes it less likely to lose a connection compared with those traveling on higher bands. It’s also cheaper to operate because it requires fewer towers.”

* As of August 2012, Verizon and AT&T together owned 74 percent of the low-band airwaves

* Sprint controlled 12 percent, and T-Mobile owned just 0.2 percent

* Most of T-Mobile’s and Sprint’s frequencies are in the higher bands

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publicintegrity.org @ATHolmes

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The newest revelation from the Edward Snowden trove of documents, reported on The Intercept, says that the NSA targeted private email, Facebook account information and other personal data about system administrators around the world to make it easier to break into the networks they control.

* Report = “Just pull those selectors, queue them up for QUANTUM, and proceed with the pwnage”

* Discussed building a “master list” of sys admins across the world

* “Our ability to pull bits out of random places of the Internet, bring them back to the mother-base to evaluate and build intelligence off of is just plain awesome!” the author writes. “One of the coolest things about it is how much data we have at our fingertips.”

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President Obama has once again summoned top tech executives to the White House. The focus of the meeting today once again is “issues of privacy, technology, and intelligence” -- in other words, the NSA’s exploitation of Silicon Valley to engage in mass surveillance. The invitation list hasn’t been announced, but reports say Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be there -- Zuck recently called Obama to complain about a revelation that the NSA was spreading malware with fake Facebook servers -- and Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt is expected to be there, too. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer reportedly declined, saying the invitation didn't give her enough notice.

* Will likely float a trial balloon on a future announcement about steps to increase intelligence oversight.

* New York Times story by Claire Cain Miller says NSA snooping is costing tech companies big time:

- Microsoft has lost customers, including the government of Brazil.

- IBM is spending more than a billion dollars to build data centers overseas to reassure foreign customers that their information is safe from prying eyes in the United States government.

- Tech companies abroad, from Europe to South America, say they are gaining customers that are shunning United States providers, suspicious because of the revelations by Edward J. Snowden that tied these providers to the National Security Agency’s vast surveillance program.

It sounds like a story from The Onion, but, no, it’s real: Mt Gox claims that it found 200 thousand bitcoins worth around $116 million in an old virtual wallet thought to be empty. The revelation happened after some noticed the bitcoins moving through the crypto-currency exchange. We reported in previous episodes about the ongoing saga of Mt Gox bitcoin, a leading bitcoin exchange that collapsed after the company claimed that all the bitcoins had been stolen by hackers. It has since filed for bankruptcy. Our advice: Keep checking those old wallets. Maybe the rest will turn up. Also: Try looking under the virtual cushions of the virtual sofa.

Oscar-winning actor Christian Bale is reportedly in talks to play Steve Jobs for David Fincher’s upcoming biopic, written by Aaron Sorkin. A Cult of Mac reader even whipped up a Photoshop showing what Bale would look like as Steve Jobs. Andy: He’s an insanely great actor, but can he pull off playing Steve Jobs?

And we take a look at how wireless carriers buy influence in Washington!

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Coming up this week: MacWorld! (officially called MacWorld slash iWorld). The show happens March 27th through the 29th in San Francisco. Ad Tech also happens this week and also in San Francisco. Watch for our special MacWorld show coverage. Also join me on Tech News Today all week with guest co-anchors Donna Tam, Stephan Shankland, Elise Hu and Jessica Lessin! Back to you, Leo!

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It's Thursday, March 20, 2014 and this is Tech News Today.

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Welcome to Tech News Today, I'm Mike Elgan - I'm Jason Howell.

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Tech News Today explores the big stories of the day in conversation with some of the world's best journalists.

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Our guest co-anchor today is David Berlind, editor in chief at ProgrammableWeb.

Another dual boot Windows-Android project has been killed. Chinese phone maker Huawei announced a dual-boot handset just last week. But now Huawei said they’ve cancelled their plans to launch the phone.

Phil Goldstein is the editor of FierceWireless. He broke the story and he’s here to talk about it.

Q: Why are these dual-boot devices being announced, then cancelled?

Q: What leverage do OS makers have over handset makers?

Q: Is Google pressuring handset makers, too?

Q: Is this a huge slap in the face to Intel, which invested heavily in its dual-OS platform, then announced it to great fanfare at CES?

Phil GoldsteinEditor of FierceWireless

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* Asustek has postponed plans to release its TD300 tablet that was presented at CES 2014.

* Statement: "at this stage there are no plans to launch a dual-OS smartphone in the near future."

Huawei’s chief marketing officer, Shao Yang, said last week. Yang claimed the firm was following a "dual OS" strategy with Android and Windows Phone on a single handset.

* Karbonn is reportedly releasing its own dual-booting Android and Windows Phone handset, due in the coming months

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fiercewireless.com @FierceWireless

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Motorola design chief Jim Wicks spilled some details about the Moto 360 smartwatch we reported on Monday. He said Motorola decided to make the watch face round, rather than square, because its a culturally familiar shape for a watch, which he believes will make it more socially acceptable.

http://moto360.motorola.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpY8O5Zer78

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+GerwinSturm/posts/8RG3NnMFhZz

https://plus.google.com/events/c5oghenfqmpls1i2tmug84vgk1c

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Scott Stein Senior Editor, CNET

Q: Why did Motorola choose to make their watch look like a watch?

Q: Everyone is making a big deal out of the fact that it’s round, but isn’t this a standard option in Google’s SDK?

Q: What’s the connection between the Moto 360 and the Moto X smartphone?

Q: The Moto 360 has no charging ports. How do you think it will be charged?

* Android Wear has two standard screen shapes in its SDK: square, and round

* Wicks most excited about voice interactions

* Available this summer

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cnet.com @jetscott

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South Korean schools are using an app-based system to restrict what students have access to during class to prevent distractions and cheating. They’re using an app called iSmartKeeper, which enables teachers to lock down phones in one of six modes, ranging from allowing only emergency calls to merely turning off specific apps.

* , but because of the mesh architecture behind FireChat, the actual range of the network around could be much larger.

* FireChat is the first iOS product from Disrupt alums Open Garden

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siliconfilter.com @fredericl

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Tech media legend Pat McGovern has died at the age of 76. He founded IDC in 1964, and launched the first major computer magazine, Computerworld, in 1967. IDC has a presence in 97 countries, and has launched 300 publications, 460 websites, and 700 events worldwide. The company employs more than 13 thousand people. Controversially, McGovern never took IDC public. It’s still privately held. McGovern and his wife also funded MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research.

Steve Jobs’ Luxury super-yacht has been spotted in Portugal. The 256-foot, iMac-controlled super-boat, which Jobs named the Venus, was the late Apple founder’s dream project since 2008. Jobs even commission the designer of Apple stores to make custom glass windows. This is the first Venus sighting in the wild. The yacht had been docked for years in an Amsterdam port because the designer hadn’t been paid yet.

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Tech News Today explores the big stories of the day in conversation with some of the world's best journalists.

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Our guest co-anchor today is Harry McCracken, editor at large for TIME who writes the Technologizer blog.

Harry McCracken, Editor at large, TIME @harrymccracken

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We’d like to turn to Rwanda this morning, where the country is preparing to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of the end of the Rwandan Civil War and genocide. An important subject to be sure, but why are we talking about this on a technology show? The reason is that in the past few years, Rwanda has been engaged in a rapid build-up of technological infrastructure and education development.

Jean Philbert NsengimanaMinister of Youth & ICT, Rwanda @nsengimanajp

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With us to talk about the education part of this transformation is Jean Philbert (N-Seng-E-Mana) Nsengimana, who is is the Minister of Youth & ICT in Rwanda.

Q: Before we talk about education, can you tell us about the development of high-speed Internet connectivity in Rwanda?

Q: I’ve read that as an example of the pace of infrastructure development, Rwanda has moved from 2% to 59% penetration for phone service. Is that correct and how long did this take?

Q: I understand you make heavy use of Google+ hangouts. Can you tell us about that?

Q: Can you tell us about the goals of technology education in Rwanda? What does the government hope to achieve?

Q: How many students are currently training, and what are they learning?

Q: Is Rwanda training people regionally? Are students coming from surrounding countries, or are they mostly Rwandans?

Q: How are these initiatives -- both infrastructure development and education -- related to the country’s economy and things like emergency services?

Q: What is the government doing to encourage entrepreneurship?

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* Alex Lindsay was instrumental in making this interview happen

* Rwandan President = Paul Kagame

* Fiber Optic highways (ducts) run across all the 30 districts.

* Partner: Korea Telecom

* YouthConnekt Hangout sessions

* K-Lab, apart from offering prospective young entrepreneurs opportunity to test out IT solutions we also offer other necessary hands-on skills in marketing, finance and business management.

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myict.gov.rw * @nsengimanajp

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Sony unveiled a prototype virtual reality system yesterday called Project Morpheus. It works with the PlayStation 4. Oculus, the company that makes the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, announced that they’re taking pre-orders for their second development kit. The Oculus Rift DK2 costs $350.

General Electric is jumping deeper into home automation with a new smartphone-controlled air conditioner. Called the Aros, the three hundred dollar A.C. has what is essentially a Nest-like smart thermostat built in.

* Will also work with other smart home controllers such as SmartThings

* Early adopters can pre-order Aros on Amazon starting today

* Product in late April or early May

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On yesterday’s show, we told you about Google’s new Android Wear initiative, and about the new watches announced by LG and Motorola that support it. We also talked about the need for apps. Today, BI Intelligence published a study on the state of the wearable app ecosystem -- past, present and future.

Edit In and out to ad

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Tony Danova is a Research Analyst for BI Intelligence and joins us today to talk about the report.

Q: Dozens of major companies and possibly hundreds of minor ones have announced wearable computing devices in the past year. But where are the apps?

Q: What are the main reasons for slow app development? Hyper-fragmentation? Lack of consumer interest ?

Q: What will the killer apps be for wearable devices. Is it possible to predict this?

Q: Which wearable categories will dominate? Smartwatches? Smart Glasses? Some other smart thing?

Q: Will most of the smartwatch apps be medical or fitness related? Is there anything for people who are both healthy and lazy and don’t want to track their biological selves?

Tony DanovaResearch Analyst, BI Intelligence @tonydanova

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intelligence.businessinsider.com @tonydanova

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We told you yesterday about Google’s new Android Wear program, and mentioned a few of the company that Google says will ship Android smartwatches this year. Samsung was one of them. Android Wear smartwatches connect to smartphones via Bluetooth. But now, a report coming out of Korea says Samsung is also working on a smartwatch that doesn’t need a smartphone -- it takes a SIM card directly, and enables calls and other features as a phone would. The report says Samsung plans to release the product first in Korea through SK Telecom, the country’s biggest carrier.

First Alicia Keys, then Ellen DeGenerus and now… Joe Belfiore? Just as the singer and comedian were caught using iPhones when they were pretending to love BlackBerry or Samsung as paid spokespersons, Microsoft’s Head of Windows Phone Joe Belfiore was caught tweeting pictures from an iPhone. He quickly pointed out in a subsequent tweet quote: “Yes, it’s an iPhone today. Trying out iOS 7.1. No need to alert the media.” unquote. Too late, Joe! The media has been alerted.

In other, other news... Smartphone cases that do jobs unrelated to the phone itself can be great. For example, one product has tools built in like a swiss-army knife. Another’s got a built-in beer bottle opener. Nice! But a new product aimed at fitness fans is literally the worst smartphone case ever conceived. It’s called the ToneFone, and it’s marketed as the “world’s heaviest iPhone case.” One version weighs 2.2 pounds and another weighs 3.3 pounds. It enables you to use your iPhone as a dumbbell for working out. You can pre-order the ToneFone, and it ships in April. Uh…. April First maybe?

This episode is brought to you by:Squarespace, the all-in-one platform that makes it fast and easy to create your own professional website or online portfolio. For a free 2 week trial and 10% off, go to squarespace.com, and use offer code TNT.

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Welcome to Tech News Today, I'm Mike Elgan - I'm Jason Howell.

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Tech News Today explores the big stories of the day in conversation with some of the world's best journalists.

Google senior V.P. Sundar Pichai announced this morning on a blog post a new project called Android Wear, which he said is Android extended to wearables. Pichai said Google is working with companies that will make smartwatches based on Android that will ship this year. These companies include: Asus, HTC, LG, Motorola, Samsung and even Fossil. Moments after Google’s announcedment this morning, LG announced a smartwatch called the G Watch. Motorola announced this morning a new smartwatch called the Moto 360

* Fitness apps can give you real-time speed, distance and time information on your wrist for your run, cycle or walk.

* Multi-screen Your key to a multiscreen world. Android Wear lets you access and control other devices from your wrist. Just say “Ok Google” to fire up a music playlist on your phone, or cast your favorite movie to your TV.

* Pichai: “Starting today, you can download a Developer Preview so you can tailor your existing app notifications for watches powered by Android Wear.”

* Because Android for wearables works with Android's rich notification system, many apps will already work well. Look out for more developer resources and APIs coming soon.

A new YouTube for kids is in the works, according to an exclusive by The Information’s Amir Efrati. The site will be devoid of adult or inappropriate content, and will be aimed at kids 10 years and younger.

Q: Would this be a second site, or a kind of parent filter like the current Safety Mode on the existing site?

Q: Would this simply be YouTube, minus the twerking videos and cussing? Or would this be a curated site of children’s content? Will Google try to get content creators to make exclusive content?

Q: Is this just an idea, or does YouTube and Google have solid plans?

Q: 10 seems to be a weird cut-off. For example, in the movie business they lump kids into the 13-and-under crowd.

Amir EfratiSenior reporter, The Information @amir

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* YouTube, which is owned by Google, talked to video producers willing to create child-oriented content

* The product is far from being launched

* YouTube already has a “safety” mode for filtering out inappropriate content

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theinformation.com @amir

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Google plans to kill its Google Voice phone service in the coming months, according to an exclusive by Seth Weintraub on 9to5mac. The plan is to move most Google Voice features and all users over to Google Hangouts.

New Facebook technology can recognize human faces almost as well as people do. Called DeepFace, the algorithm can identify a face with 97.25 per cent accuracy. That’s just one quarter of a percentage point worse than people can recognize faces.

* test dataset that contained more than 13,000 images of faces collected from the web

* Amazon's Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing site managed 97.5 per cent

* Facebook's neural network was trained on a dataset of more than 4 million images, containing more than 4000 separate identities, each one labelled by humans

* Gary Huang of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst says that a Chinese machine vision start-up called Face++ claims to have a comparable level of face recognition accuracy

* Face++ is used on China's largest online dating website, Jiayuan.com

* Face++ will find users that look similar to your crush

* DeepFace doesn’t put names to faces. It just can tell if a face in one photo is the same as a face in another photo

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grahamcluley.com @gcluley

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Google and Viacom kissed and made up today. The companies settled their long-running court battle over Viacom content on YouTube, which began with a one billion dollar lawsuit way back in 2007 over copyrighted Viacom content like South Park and The Daily Show posted on YouTube between 2005 and 2008. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

* According to Viacom, nearly 160,000 clips of Viacom programming — including clips from shows like “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “South Park” — were available on YouTube without permission, and that those clips had been viewed more than 1.5 billion times.

* The companies already have in place a filter that screens for unauthorized Viacom content and allows the entertainment company to take it down. Viacom also has official channels on YouTube that it uses to promote shows from MTV and Comedy Central.

* The companies, in a joint statement about the settlement Tuesday, said: “Google and Viacom today jointly announced the resolution of the Viacom vs. YouTube copyright litigation.”

* Google acquired YouTube one year before the lawsuit

* Even as the suit dragged on, the companies since then have reached biz agreements; for example, Viacom participates in the YouTube Content ID program to scan for copyrighted material uploaded to the service.

* Paramount also in 2012 licensed films to YouTube available for rent.

We told you yesterday about the creation, removal, then re-creation of a service called Popcorn Time, which works like Netflix but gets movies from BitTorrent. A viewer named Jared writes: I don't think Popcorn Time is illegal by any means, since all they are doing is getting content from torrenting sites anyway. Whichever way you look at it, movie studio's will need to get this message. Even though it hurts content creators, this is the internet. They need to Work with it.......not against it.

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We told you on previous episodes about Amazon’s rumored video streaming box. The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that Amazon will ship its rumored video-streaming device in early April. The product will be sold through Amazon dot com, of course, and also by Staples and Best Buy in the U.S., according to the article.

This episode of Tech News Today is brought to you by Personal Capital. With Personal Capital, you’ll finally have all your financial life in one place and get a clear view of everything you own. BEST OF ALL IT’S FREE. To sign up go to personalcapital.com/tnt.

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Welcome to Tech News Today, I'm Mike Elgan - I'm Jason Howell.

6

On Tech News Today, we explore the big stories of the day in conversation with some of the world's best journalists.

7

Our guest co-anchor today is Harry McCracken, editor at large for TIME who writes the Technologizer blog.

We told you Wednesday about a story on The Intercept blog that said the NSA is spreading malware by using fake Facebook servers. The NSA subsequently denied it. And this morning, the Intercept’s Ryan Gallagher posted an intriguing piece contrasting NSA denials against details of the leaked documents, which of course are part of the trove leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Ryan Gallagher writes for The Intercept and joins us today to talk about his story.

Q: Before we talk about the denials and your piece this morning, can you first summarize this particular revelation as reported last week?

Q: So who denied this within the NSA and what did they deny?

Q: How do the documents compare with the denials?

Q: As you wrote in your piece, the NSA’s denials about faking a Facebook server are in the present tense, so it’s not a denial that they did it in the past, right?

Q: To what extent are these Snowden documents just a bunch of talk. Is the media properly parsing out the difference between a stated capability and an actual capability and also an actual use of a capability?

A service called Popcorn Time, which lets you watch pirated BitTorrent movies free, became available last week, only to be shut down, then resurrected again over the weekend.

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Devindra Hardawar is Senior Editor and lead mobile writer for VentureBeat.

Q: First of all, can you tell us what Popcorn Time is and who created it?

Q: Why did it shut down?

Q: Who resurrected it?

Q: Does an app like this have a chance of both surviving pressure from Hollywood and also competing against all the other ways to download movies?

Q: YTS is now claiming that it’s a community project, right? What’s that all about?

Devindra HardawarSenior Editor, VentureBeat @Devindra

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* The software was removed from Mega.co.nz mid-week

* It’s still unclear if that action was taken by Mega on its own or under threats from Hollywood

* Beta builds for Windows, OS X, and Linux are being posted to GitHub

* "The YTS team will now be picking up the Popcorn Time project and continuing on like previously," a developer told TorrentFreak.

* "We are in a better position copyright wise as for us, because it's build on our API. It's as if we have built another interface to our website."

* The Argentina-based team added that piracy is not a people problem, it’s one based around service created by an industry that “portrays innovation as a threat to their antique recipe to collect value.”

* Speaking with TorrentFreak, YTS (formerly YIFY-Torrents) developer Jduncanator has confirmed that Popcorn Time will not die with the withdrawal of its founding team. Instead, YTS will pick up the baton and run.

VERGE UPDATE: Since our interview with the YTS developer, YTS have given us a new statement which effectively distances them from the Popcorn Time project. “Popcorn Time is a community driven project, not owned nor maintained by a single person or entity,” the site said.

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venturebeat.com * @Devindra

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Apple is working on an iOS application that will almost certainly ship with iOS and may be called Healthbook. This passbook-like app will apparently focus on fitness tracking and healthcare monitoring.

9to5Mac’s Mark Gurman posted a detailed analysis of Healthbook this morning, and joins us now to fill us in.

Q: What is Healthbook and what will it be able to do?

Q: You wrote that the interface is like Passbook. In what way?

Q: You claim Healthbook will track hydration levels. How will it get this data?

Q: It appears that Apple expects users to enter in a ton of data, including what they eat. Will anybody actually do this? It doesn’t seem mainstream enough for Apple.

Q: Will some of this data come from the rumored iWatch or other fitness-related bands?

Q: There’s a section in the app called Blood Sugar. Will this tie into medical devices designed for diabetics?

Q: It appears that the app will track sleep cycles. Any idea how they’ll do that?

Q: There’s also an emergency card for the user’s emergency medical data. Any evidence this will be sharable?

Mark GurmanSenior Editor, 9to5Mac @markgurman

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* Thanks to the capabilities of the iPhone 5s’s M7 motion co-processor, Healthbook could technically receive steps, miles walked, and caloric data from the iPhone itself. However, that is where the M7 stops being useful for Healthbook.

* Blood, hydration, and respiratory rate information would clearly need to come from other sources.

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Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, who we told in in previous episodes was identified by Newsweek as being the creator of Bitcoin, has gotten himself a lawyer and has officially denied involvement in the crypto-currency. In a statement, he said, quote: “I did not create, invent, or otherwise work on Bitcoin. I unconditionally deny the Newsweek report.” I also assume he'll be cancelling his subscription.

Two engineers in England destroyed the Rubik's Cube record with a robot they made with LEGO. Their Cubestormer 3 robot solved Rubik's Cube in 3.253 seconds, shattering the old record of 5.55 seconds. The robot is made with a few Lego Mindstorm sets and it’s powered by a custom-made Android app running on a Samsung Galaxy S4. It took Mike Dobson and David Gilday a year and a half to build the robot. Dilday, by the way, works for ARM, the chip-maker.

START AT 0:09http://youtu.be/X0pFZG7j5cE?t=9s

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Welcome to Tech News Today, I'm Mike Elgan - I'm Jason Howell.

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On Tech News Today, we explore the big stories of the day in conversation with some of the world's best journalists.

Media web sites in Russia are having a bad week. They’re under attack both by hackers and also by the Russian government. A local Anonymous branch is allegedly DDoSing Russian media outlets, as well as Russian government and Central Bank sites. These attacks follow government crackdowns on media sites critical of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

* Anonymous (KAW-cuh-sus) Caucasus, the “Electronic Army of the Caucasus (EH-muh-rut) Emirate,” has claimed responsibility for the attack on its Facebook page with a statement saying, “This is just warming up, Russian pig!”

* The Kremlin also claimed this attack was unrelated to the standoff in Ukraine = unlikely

* Russia’s Central Bank saw its website knocked offline this morning

* Anonymous claimed responsibility for taking out the TV station Channel One:

* Ukrainian state and media organizations have reported many online attacks in recent weeks that may or may not have been orchestrated by the Kremlin

The latest attacks, however, may be connected with the blocking on Thursday of several major news sites by Russian ISPs. This was on the Kremlin’s orders, under a 2012 law that was ostensibly designed to protect children from child pornography and material relating to drug use and suicide.

A web published by Dave Zatz called Zatz Not Funny -- see what he did there? -- published pictures of what he claims is a controller for an upcoming Amazon game console. The leak, if accurate, bolsters rumors that Amazon will soon ship a set top box that also runs games.

Joining us to talk about the prospects of an Amazon game console is Mike Futter, the News Editor for Game Informer Magazine -- and the guy who broke the Amazon game console story back in August.

Q: Can you tell us briefly what we know about a possible Amazon game system?

Q: Does the leaked controller pic seem legit?

Q: As a gaming writer, does it seem likely that Amazon could compete against Microsoft, Sony and Google in the game market?

Q: It’s widely assumed that Amazon will use a forked version of Android for their system. That strategy worked for Kindle, but will it work for gaming?

Mike FutterNews Editor, Game Informer Magazine @Futterish

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* Come from a Brazilian regulatory agency similar to the FCC

* Mike Futter – News Editor of Game Informer Magazine first broke the story in August

* Would compete with Apple TV, Roku and probably a forthcoming Google box

* Earlier this month, Amazon bought game studio Double Helix Games

* Xbox-style offset analogue sticks.

* The controller also features three central buttons that look like Android's back, home, and menu keys

* Button beneath that bears the logo for GameCircle, Amazon's service for cloud saves, leaderboards, and achievements.

* May run a forked Android like Kindle Fire

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gameinformer.com * @Futterish

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Asustek announced earlier this year a new tablet called the Transformer Book Duet TD300. What was different about this tablet is that it was a dual-boot device out of the box, running both Android and Windows. Intel’s CEO Brian Krzanich even showed the device during his CES keynote. But now Asustek has postponed, and may cancel, the product, after being pressured by both Microsoft and Google, according to the Wall Street Journal.

* Acer2353 canceled after Google threatened to terminate its “Android-related cooperation and other technology licensing” with Acer. Google said Alibaba’s Aliyun operating system was an “Android fork” and that Acer would break its licensing agreement with Google by using it, a claim that Alibaba contested.

* Microsoft and Intel supply large chunks of computer makers’ marketing budgets, and manufacturers who go against their wishes risk jeopardizing the funding

* Samsung also announced a dual-OS tablet last year, a product that it hasn't begun selling.

* Indicates tension between Microsoft and Intel

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Sprint announced a new prepaid prepaid wireless plan, and the Wall Street Journal says it just may be the worst deal ever. Called Sprint Prepaid, the plan charges you $45 a month and you get unlimited voice and text but no cellular data. All Internet surfing on the plan has to be done over Wi-Fi.

* Republic Wireless — which buys access to Sprint’s network wholesale and resells it to customers — offers unlimited voice and texts with data over Wi-Fi for $10 a month.

* Exact same deal on the exact same network for $35 less a month.

Sprint’s own subsidiary Virgin Mobile USA sells a plan for $35 a month that restricts users to 300 minutes of talk time but comes with unlimited mobile data

* The new Sprint Prepaid brand will offer a Smart Plus option with unlimited data for $60 a month. But that’s more than the $55 a month that another Sprint subsidiary, Boost Mobile, charges for its own unlimited voice, text and data plan. Boost’s rate, by the way, can eventually drop as low as $40 a month as a reward for on-time payments.

* Customers who want the Sprint Prepaid have to use an old phone: Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini, the Samsung Galaxy S3, and a used Apple iPhone 4s.

In other news... Symantec researchers spotted a phishing scam for the record books recently. The email arrives with the subject “Documents,” and tells the recipient to look at files on Google Docs, and conveniently provides a link. But here’s the crazy part. The fake page is hosted on Google's servers and is served over SSL. The scammers simply uploaded their file to a public folder on a Google drive account. Once the file is clicked on, the victim is confronted with a standard-looking Google log-in. Once they enter in username and password, the credentials are whisked away to a PHP script on a compromised web server for later use by hackers.

And finally, some good news: The Pocket Drone looks like it’s really going to fly. The mini tri-copter is strong enough to carry a high quality action camera and it folds up smaller than a 7in tablet. The company, called AirDroids, just ended their Kickstarter campaign with nearly a million dollars in funding -- the most popular drone project ever crowdfunded. Their initial goal was thirty five thousand dollars. Preorders begin in April; the drones should ship in the fall, according to the company.

This episode of Tech News Today is brought to you by…Gazelle, the fast and simple way to sell your used gadgets! Find out what your used Apple and Android carrier products are worth at gazelle.com.

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And by shutterstock.com. With over 30 million high-quality stock photos, illustrations, vectors and video clips, Shutterstock helps you take your creative projects to the next level. For 20% off your new account, go to shutterstock.com and use offer code TNT THREE FOURTEEN.

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Welcome to Tech News Today, I'm Mike Elgan - I'm Jason Howell.

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On Tech News Today, we explore the most important stories of the day in conversation with the world's leading journalists.

Two very interesting and credible leaks hit within the last hour or two. The first comes from Evan Blass, who posted to his EvLeaks Twitter account what he says are leaked specifications for the upcoming Google smartwatch, which will be made by LG: More Google (LG) smartwatch specs: He says it’ll have a 1.65-inch IPS LCD at a resolution of 280x280. Also: 512MB RAM, 4GB internal storage. And he says the CPU hasn’t been determined yet. Some expect this at Google I/O in June.

An in another apparent leak, 9to5Mac is claiming iOS 8 screenshots that appeared on a Chinese Weibo account are legitimate, according to their sources. The screens show new apps called Preview and TextEdit, Healthbook and Tips. We’re also hearing reports of new iCloud enhancements coming soon from Apple.

Apple, Microsoft, Google and Cisco collectively hold about $163 billion in US government debt, much of it offshore, which earns them tax-free interest paid for by American taxpayers, according to a report this morning by Nick Mathiason writing for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Q: You wrote that the US government collects taxes from US taxpayers and transfers it to these companies in the form of interest payments. You called the amount “vast,” but how much is being transferred?

Q: Now this is legal, right?

Q: Is this corporate welfare?

Q: At least one of these companies says the problem is that US corporate taxes are too high. It seems to me that they’re high on paper, but the actual amount paid by US corporations is relatively low, isn’t it? Is that because of loopholes and offshoring like this?

Q: Senator Carl Levin says the money should be taxed. Are there others calling for this, and is this likely to happen?

* The Bureau of Investigative Journalism is an independent not-for-profit organisation that conducts in-depth research into the governance of public, private and third sector organisations and their influence. They make their work freely available under a Creative Commons licence.

* $124bn in US Treasury securities – the remaining $39bn is held in US government agency debt

* From report = “The four leading US digital firms have accumulated cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities worth $255 billion in their foreign subsidiaries, which they state in SEC filings could be liable for corporation tax if repatriated to the United States.”

* From report = “If this cash was brought onshore and taxed at the current US corporation tax rate of 35%, it would produce a $89bn windfall for the US Treasury – equivalent to 17% of America’s projected $514bn budget deficit this year.”

A new study found that people who click through to news sites from social networks tend to be less engaged. The report, published by the Pew Research Center today, found that it’s hard for content sites to maintain connections with people coming from Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or even Search, for that matter.

Nieman Journalism Lab staff writer Joseph Lichterman posted a really interesting analysis of the numbers this morning and he joins us to talk about it.

Q: Joseph, what was the big takeaway from this study?

Q: Why is social traffic so fickle?

Q: How much does bookmarking and subscription to RSS feeds affect readership?

Q: News sites lately have been gravitating toward link-baity headlines, influenced by the Buzzfeeds and the Upworthys. Is this a losing strategy, because it favors the un-engaged readers and angers the engaged ones?

Q: While the attraction of less-engaged readers through social is a downside, are these readers more likely to share, and doesn’t that increase traffic?

Q: In your piece, you contrasted the New York Times against Buzzfeed in terms of readership and engagement. How are they different?

Joseph LichtermanStaff writer, Nieman Journalism Lab @ylichterman

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* Used Facebook as the only example social network

* Users who arrive at the 26 news sites studied directly spend about three times as long there as opposed to users who arrive via Facebook

* Direct visitors also view about five times as many pages per month and visit a news site about three times as often as users coming from Facebook or search.

* Pew compiled the study by examining three-months’ worth of comScore data for a group of 26 news sites, spanning both pre-web and online-native outlets (from NBC News to BuzzFeed)

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niemanlab.org @ylichterman

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Emotions on social networks can spread like a virus, according to a new study that tracked 100 million Americans and a billion social messages.

Q: The researchers found that rain in a city would change the emotions of people in that city, and that the rainy day emotions would then spread via social networks to other cities where it wasn’t raining.

Q: One of the researchers in this study told you that these contagious emotions can even affect financial markets, and also political activity. Did he have any proof?

Q: Previous studies have found addictive behaviors also spread online. Is that now generally accepted among researchers?

Robert Lee HotzScience writer, The Wall Street Journal @leHotz

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* "We wanted to see if emotional changes in one person caused emotional changes in another person and that's exactly what we found," said UC San Diego political scientist James Fowler, who was lead author on the research published online in the journal PLOS ONE.

* Dr. Fowler and his colleagues studied status updates posted by 100 million users in the 100 most populous U.S. cities between January 2009 and March 2012. To further protect confidentiality, the data were kept on Facebook's secure servers and handled by the company's data scientists, two of whom were co-authors on the research paper.

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wsj.com @leHotz

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A report coming out of India says that Microsoft may give Windows Phone away free to two Indian phone makers. The Times of India Sources told him that Lava and Karbonn have convinced Microsoft to licence Windows Phone without charge, which would be a first for Microsoft.

* These Windows Phone devices are likely to hit the market in the next few months.

* Microsoft reportedly charged Nokia between $20 to $30 for each Lumia

* Handset company executive: "Free Windows Phone is part of a strategic partnership. For both Microsoft and us, it is an experiment. Windows Phone still doesn't have lot of appeal in the market but now that it doesn't have any licence fee, it becomes easier for us to experiment with it," said another senior executive.

* According to the latest IDC figures, Windows Phone OS has less than 10% share in India's smartphone market, which is dominated by Android. An IDC analyst said the "free" Windows Phone will definitely help Microsoft.

We told you weeks ago that Amazon was thinking about raising the price of its Prime service. Today, the company made it official. The price of Prime has gone up from $79 to $99 per year. Prime gives Amazon customers unlimited free two-day shipping on many items, plus access to streaming movies and TV shows through Amazon Instant Video. The old price is in effect for one more week, so if you want to save twenty bucks, you’d better be quick about it.

In other news... MIT has built a better robot fish. Their swimming robot has a soft silicon body, and is controlled via WiFi. The fish uses air pressure for movement, which gives it the ability to swim like a real fish, and even execute what MIT robot geniuses say are “high performance maneuvers.” It’s also unusual in that it’s the only “high performance” robot fish with the brain built in. The group is working on an upgraded robot fish that uses water, rather than air, for movement -- that should give the fish about a half-hour of swimming.

GO FULL SCREEN, START VIDEO AT 2:06http://youtu.be/BSA_zb1ajes?t=2m6s

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And in other, other news, A new iPad game called Surgeon Simulator 2013 may be the most horrifying app ever. It takes a lot of control and practice to master the art of cutting open a patient and performing surgery using an iPad. So why bother? Why not just mutilate the patient in a kind of free-form, Grand-Theft Auto-style improvisation that, although sure to kill the patient, is at least vaguely entertaining. The game has been around awhile, but offers new controls, new features and new ways to commit medical malpractice. The app costs $5.99.

FULL SCREEN - START AT 0:13: http://youtu.be/17RY58OxS9w?t=13s

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New leaks give details about Google’s smartwach and also iOS 8. New details about Silicon Valley’s corporate welfare. And science proves that emotions on social sites spread like a virus. Science!! All that and more coming up next on Tech News Today!

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TITLE: SHOW TITLE, Google's Got Game

GUEST CO-ANCHOR: David Coursey

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It's Wednesday, March 12, 2014 and this is Tech News Today.

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This episode is sponsored by ShareFile! Enhance your work flow - send files of almost any size easily and securely with ShareFile, by Citrix. Try ShareFile today! For a 30 Day Free Trial, go to ShareFile.com, click the microphone and enter TNT!

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And by NatureBox where you can order great-tasting, healthy snacks delivered right to your door. Forget the vending machine, and get in shape with healthy, delicious treats like Southern BBQ Sunflower Kernels! To get 50% off your first box go to naturebox.com/twit. That’s naturebox.com/twit.

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Welcome to Tech News Today, I'm Mike Elgan - I'm Jason Howell.

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On Tech News Today, we explore the big stories of the day in conversation with some of the world's best journalists.

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Our guest today is David Coursey, a writer, broadcaster, event host, industry analyst and business consultant.

Q: They kept selling the controller, but stopped the app. Sounds like a badly run company

Q: Is this evidence of a game-supporting set-top box coming in future from Google?

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* Sold $40 “Atlas” Bluetooth controller that could play a handful Android games on a TV

* Throttle removed its “Arena” Android app from the Google Play store in November

* Its console – which remains on sale through Amazon – is functionally useless

* Based in Santa Clara

* Launched in late 2012

* Launched by Charles Huang of Guitar Hero fame

* Matt Crowley and Karl Townsend, worked on Palm Pilot

* Android Arena app via bluetooth

* Google confirmed, but didn’t disclose the terms of the deal

* Green Throttle staff brought into Google, including two of the three co-founders

* Pando: “Green Throttle Games acquisition is a clear signal that Google looking at anchoring its set-top TV box – rumored at the end of last year to be coming in the first half of 2014 – around games.”

* Amazon’s set top box could arrive by the end of March

* Apple has been talking content deals with Time Warner for a possible April launch of a new box

The web turns 25 today. World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first draft proposal for the hyperlinked information management system that would one day usher in the web, and with it Facebook, Google, cloud computing and most importantly, TWiT and Tech News Today. To mark the anniversary, Berners-Lee is calling for a “Magna Carta” or “bill of rights” for the web to protect its independence from censorship, surveillance and control.

* Berners-Leet was a 34-year-old physics graduate working as a software engineer at Cern in 1989, when he wrote a paper simply titled "Information Management: A Proposal".

* From the paper: “the hope would be to allow a pool of information to develop which could grow and evolve with the organisation and the projects it describes"

* Paper: “generality and portability are more important than fancy graphics techniques and complex extra facilities".

* How important is the web? People send hundreds of millions of messages, share 20 million photos and exchange at least $15 million in goods and services every minute of every day on the web (WWW foundation)

* The web constitution proposal should also examine the impact of copyright laws and the cultural-societal issues around the ethics of technology.

* part of an initiative called "the web we want"

* Sir Tim Berners-Lee told the Guardian the web had come under increasing attack from governments and corporate influence and that new rules were needed to protect the "open, neutral" system.

* Called for the US to give up control of the Internet, upon which the web runs

* Web open to public 1991; first browser: 1992

* Worked at Cern when he created it with a Next computer, which is now a holy relic

* Marc Andreessen part of a team that created the first graphical web browser, called Mosaic

* More than two people in five are connected to the web

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The tech pubs are reporting on Apple’s release of iOS 7.1, talking about bug fixes, enhancements and support for Apple’s CarPlay initiative, mostly. But one overlooked feature is major improvements to Apple’s iBeacon system.

Q: iPhone defaults to hunting for beacons even when app closed; you tested - how did it work?

Q: Why is this feature significant?

Q: Is there a risk here for hacking?

Q: Can users opt out?

Q: How else is the performance or functionality of iBeacon different?

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* Once an app is installed it will “look” for beacons even if your app is shut down or you’ve rebooted your phone.

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mylocolo.com @Dusanwriter

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The NSA is reportedly spreading malware by using fake Facebook servers. The distribution of this malware could be automated and deployed at a massive scale. The payloads themselves could be “tailored to covertly record audio from a computer’s microphone and take snapshots with its webcam” and could also track Skype and other Voice Over IP calls, among other capabilities. This information was reported in an exclusive this morning on The Intercept, which exists to report news from documents uncovered by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

* Facebook hack spoofs a convincing Facebook page, but with that page loaded “the NSA is able to hack into the targeted computer and covertly siphon out data from its hard drive.”

* Facebook spokesman Jay Nancarrow said the company had “no evidence of this alleged activity.”

* The malware may have also “enabled the NSA to launch cyberattacks by corrupting and disrupting file downloads or denying access to websites.”

* An automated system – codenamed TURBINE – is designed to “allow the current implant network to scale to large size (millions of implants) by creating a system that does automated control implants by groups instead of individually.”

* TURBINE as part of a broader NSA surveillance initiative named “Owning the Net.”

* Docs talk about a pre-programmed part of the covert infrastructure called the “Expert System,” which is designed to operate “like the brain.” The system manages the applications and functions of the implants and “decides” what tools they need to best extract data from infected machines. (quotes are from nsa)

* Earlier reports based on the Snowden files indicate that the NSA has already deployed between 85,000 and 100,000 of its implants against computers and networks across the world, with plans to keep on scaling up those numbers.

* QUANTUMSKY used to block targets from accessing certain websites

* Code-named SECONDDATE to “influence real-time communications between client and server” and to “quietly redirect web-browsers” to NSA malware servers called FOXACID

* SECONDDATE tailored not only for “surgical” surveillance attacks on individual suspects. It can also be used to launch bulk malware attacks against computers.